Shaun Ellis is the Wolfman
An animal researcher who has lived among wolves, adopted a pack of American Timberwolf cubs, and subject of a documentary A Man Among Wolves, Shaun Ellis steps in as a wolf mother substitute and teaches a wolf cub how to howl.
The North American Timberwolf, or Gray Wolf, technical name Canis Lupus, exist in only about a dozen states in the US, with one of the largest populations being in Wisconsin. Timberwolves are the largest “wild” member of the dog family. Wolves live in groups, packs, very social animals about 6-10 animals per group. A wolf’s territory generally ranges from 20-100 miles, so it’s a large area that unfortunately brings them into contact and conflict with humans. Territories of packs usually don’t overlap.
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Timberwolves are carnivores, which means they eat other animals, with a diet according to one study in Wisconsin that showed over half their diet to be white-tailed deer.
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In the midwest Timberwolves breed in January and February. When they are born, they are born both blind and deaf, pretty much defenseless. For the first six weeks the pups will wean on the mother. After that, the mother will go out, kill and devour an animal and then come back to the den and regurgitate it when the pups nip at her muzzle. At 8 weeks they leave the den to make trips to other locations familiar to the mother. By August the pups have become young adult members of the group and follow the pack.
Our wolf populations have decreased due to bounties that were placed on them as more and more people took up the sport of deer hunting. Bounties, or cash payments, were offered for dead wolves to protect the deer populations for the sport hunters.
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The Gray Wolf is a State Protected Animal in Wisconsin, and is on the Federal Endangered Species list.
Shaun Ellis has a keen interest in wolves. He started when he left the Marine Corp and lived with Native Americans in Idaho as a volunteer for a project studying wolves. He founded Wolf Pack Management at Combe Martin Wildlife Park. And he spent 18 months living with abandoned wolf pups, teaching them how to be wolves.
He is currently working on a program that would help discourage wolves from coming into contact with humans in Yellowstone and in Poland.
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One Response to “Shaun Ellis is the Wolfman”
On July 25, 2009 at 11:21 am
This article doesn’t mention that Shaun Ellis had a TV show on Animal Planet called “Living with the Wolfman.”
Information can be found here:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/wolfman/
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